“I’m loving it, the whole Marmite thing,” laughs Maureen Travers stuck in traffic on the M1 for three hours. “I know some people hate traffic delays but it gave me a chance to catch up with friends on Facebook, and listen to South Yorkshire Radio, and the yeasty smell of Marmite – which I love – made it that much better.

Launch celebrations for Europe’s Galileo satellites, built to compete with the US GPS system, have been cut short after the rocket carrying them started to head off course while flying over the M1, just north of Leicester’s Forest East services.